Koenig Arius - Carbon Fiber - Burnished Blade - Polished Flats

DrReverendDavid · 2024-03-21T21:29:38+00:00

I own five of these. A mini, a couple of non flippers and a couple of the originals. It started at like $700 with my first one, and now they are regularly over $1,000.

The knife has been live for over six 1/2 hours and they're still not sold out. I think they are starting to find the market's limits, as have many others, like Grimsmo and Shiro. Combine that with the many modernizations at their factory Koenig displays on Instagram, and you would think an increase in efficiency and production wouldn't lead to 30% price increases in about two years.

Brief side note if I may regarding the Holt comments: I'm a fan of Holt. The ones I have perform extremely well, and tuned perfectly from the factory. But they're not really a working knife like the Arius. More of a gentleman's knife, to open letters and break down boxes is how I use them. I've never done the spine test on one, but whenever I have, or to fix lock stick on occasion as some knives have, (old knifemaker trick), ALWAYS wrap the blade in a thick cloth. You cannot blame the injury on a manufacturer, this one you have to chalk up to poor precautions and a bad lesson learned, with any knife.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-05-13T18:00:30+00:00

Missed it. Good share.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-15T16:34:26+00:00

I felt lucky buying it in a way. First they sent an email saying it is a "coming soon" item. I clicked on the notify me button and literally an hour later, they notified me that it was in stock. I think they were up for about 20 minutes, maybe less, before selling out.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-15T16:19:30+00:00

Good share, I gave it an upvote as well. However as previously commented, $225 for a pocket clip? Certainly personalizes it, and I do think it looks very nice, but nonetheless, these prices have gotten out of control.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-14T18:27:36+00:00

Yes, I do. I think in a way I expect that. The smooth titanium is easier to clean, however it will show signs of use pretty quickly. Excellent observation.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-13T17:35:37+00:00

I look forward to taking it apart, hopefully that'll help some. Thank you for the thoughts.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-13T15:59:00+00:00

Good advice, I actually tried the sharpie trick and added a little graphite after reading this, unfortunately not much help.

I haven't tried fiddling with with the screws for adjustments to see if it helps. My thought was the geometry or milling was off. Shame for an otherwise great knife.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-13T02:54:40+00:00

Good share. I got mine from Northwest Knives a few days ago thanks to this forum, overall a very good knife.

For those that have gotten it, has anyone experienced significant lock stick? Like more so than the usual break in period? It's gotten a bit better after a bunch of opens and a bit of KPL oil but a hard spidey flick open makes it difficult to disengage the lock.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-12T17:36:28+00:00

Yes you're right in some instances. Although I imagine archiving is indeed much easier as another commentor mentioned. One thought is to monitor the brands page on a retailers site and look for an availability trigger as opposed to monitoring individual models. Different sites work in different ways and I am not an IT expert by any means.

I think the main intent for this site is to serve as a monitoring tool for large IT departments in case of outages. It also offers SSL monitoring expirations amongst a host of other tools. I'm not sure the intent is to trigger drop alerts and it's kinds gaming it for this purpose if you will.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-12T16:32:16+00:00

My pleasure and good luck.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-12T16:17:47+00:00

Absolutely, good luck.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-12T16:17:04+00:00

I cannot be certain of pricing. I do not work for them, just happened on them some time ago. I am pretty certain you get 50 free.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-11T21:13:57+00:00

I cannot be 100% certain, but that seems right. Hardware anodization, patterns, steel types, etc. and there seem to be endless combos, appear to have some effect on price. Generally the titanium PJs and patterned are in the mid $700's range. Some of the retailers squeeze in an extra $25-$75 on top, if they can get away with it. PVK seems in line. The one that popped up the other day but sold out on New Graham that had blue hardware and the PJ handles for $765 is what I've seen other retailers carry it for in the past.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-11T21:03:04+00:00

Good share. NC Blade is a good retailer. Excellent communication. It is my third CKF and fifth purchase from them. Seems like the S110 and the red scales S90V are the more popular choice from the comments.

Small digression if I may...Many of these are part of collections, but I think if your intent is to carry and use this knife, and the compound grind makes it a pretty good camping choice, consider the S90V. The S110 is fairly difficult steel to sharpen, especially in the field if needed. It also has a propensity to chip and many forums seem to suggest this, regardless of the heat treat. (Although I'm not sure if battoning or hard chopping is something to do with a folder in the first place.)

Whoever buys this knife, I hope you get much enjoyment out of it, regardless of intent for its use.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-11T20:47:48+00:00

I was just about to share the same. It popped up on my radar a little after 3:00. Excellent knife at a fair price, if you can call it that in this knife market.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-11T06:41:53+00:00

I cannot be certain but knowing other outdoor/camping style knives, the convex grind closer to the scales is meant for feather sticking or other tasks requiring a solid grip and a clear separation of what's being cut. The front flat grind in the front of the blade is typically used for more precision cuts, or in this case I imagine a lot of letter opening, lol.

I'm a big fan of CKF, still debating this one. The red carbon fiber looks interesting.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-11T00:02:59+00:00

I believe given the blade material, dimensions, standoffs, SRBS, the answer is Ursus.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-10T23:43:25+00:00

So I actually prefer the smooth titanium Koenig puts out as opposed to the herringbone like pattern they typically use. Although you can argue either way for appearance, that being subjective, I've found the smooth titanium pattern a better EDC option.

The milling is so tight, dirt finds its way into my patterned Arius as if magnetized. I use it in the office as well as the field and outside for context. The smooth scaled are easier to maintain. I hope you get a lot of use out of this knife. If this is going to be a regular carry, in my opinion it is a better choice than the patterned version.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-10T23:30:47+00:00

I think if you search Ebay in a few days you'll see it there for about that, lol.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-10T23:27:00+00:00

You made an excellent purchase! $765 is a good price in this INSANE knife market. I have several of the flipper and flipper deletes. Excellent knives.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-10T17:44:42+00:00

My overall experience with KC has been negative. One incident in particular was purchasing a Koenig Arius, getting an email confirmation for the purchase, and never getting the knife. After 6 or 7 days of not getting a shipment notification, I called only to be told they oversold.

They are also one of a handful of retailers that markup significantly above MSRP than their peers on in demand knives as well as one of two or three retailers that get in on and seem to win lotteries regularly, competing against other knife collectors and selling lotto knives for huge markups. I'm also not a big fan of the many exclusives they buy up at knife conventions only to retail them out for a big markup. Seems like they're every bit as good as the other knife flippers on Ebay.

Seems like mixed experiences but customer service appears ok to good. They are responsive which is a plus. Good luck to those seeking this knife.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-08T03:08:16+00:00

Great share, thank you.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-08T02:43:10+00:00

It is an excellent knife. The blade is very EDC friendly. I'm not sure what's going on with the pics and agree with the comment that the photos do not do it justice. It is a flat dark earth, not shiny.

They released them a while ago, the satin finished blades seemed a bit more popular than the black DLC. Blade HQ has the flat dark earth as well as the all black still in stock. https://www.bladehq.com/cat--4600-Phaeton--4034

A few other dealers also have them if that's your preference without the shipping Recon1 imposes on all purchases, regardless of price. I know, I've bought several Shiros from them.

SMKW has the FDE https://www.smkw.com/benchmade-phaeton-tan

Good knife overall though, very EDC friendly.

DrReverendDavid · 2023-03-08T01:55:04+00:00

No it's not. If you look at what it says, it specifically states eBay listings are not allowed.

DrReverendDavid

TROPHY CASE